Highlights from The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

The exhibition was amazingly put together. The work of Jean Paul Gaultier is truly amazing, and this exhibition is designed to showcase his work in a quirky and innovative way.

The experience walking through the exhibition is truly one of a kind. I highly recommend making your way there and judge for yourself. Details of this exhibition can be found at http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/jeanpaulgaultier

The work is copyrighted to its rightful owner. The footage is shot on Canon s100 and is copyrighted. Please do not use or distribute this video without permission.

I didn’t anticipate that the Gallery would allow video filming and photography at this exhibition as it was such a high profile designer. So I didn’t have my dSLR with me. The footage came out ‘okay’ and I did the best I could to colour match and fix a few exposure issue.

The clip features one of my music tracks I composed in GarageBand. I had been dying to use this track (though I composed another track specifically to go with this video I put together).

After being a professional designer for over eight years, I have found my career has reached a crosspoint; the crosspoint where I either move to another city to pursue greater challenges in advertising, or, I create new challenges for myself.

I chose to stay where I am and create new challenges for myself, in the form of photography.

Photography has always been a hobby of mine. My exposure to photography began when I was 16 years old, albeit late in the current iphonography generation, and it was through a proper photography society club in my high school. It all started with a curiosity to learn about photography, how it works and what is it about. The creativity side was never a plan for me. I certainly didn’t plan to become a creative professional when I was at that age. I just wanted to finish the boring high school curriculum.

I always have been a kinetic learner. Naturally, photography soon became a thing that I interested in and could hold all my attention, as most people know I have a short attention span in other things. Despite the passion I have to learn all about photography, it was very much an expensive hobby for me growing. I couldn’t afford any gear. The only time I had any contact with a camera was when I met up with the members of the photography society club at school. But then, it was still very much on a turn-by-turn basis. I sometimes had to wait till almost 1.5 hours before I could have a go. There wasn’t any official lessons, only learning from peers. You could imagine how sloppy and unprofessional all of us were.

After I started a bachelor degree in graphic design, it was part of the syllabus to learn photography. It was then I finally got some serious lessons. I learned very quickly and became one of the students with high level of technical understanding of photography (from film development to processing prints). I was even more excited to be able to work a proper studio with lights and backdrops.

Digital camera was a new technology at the time I attended university. It really didn’t interest me at all but I had to learn the basics. I invested money in a film SLR instead and I still have the camera if the processing cost hasn’t become unsustainable. I finally bought a digital SLR last year. I was so happy and I have been using it since.

My passion for photography isn’t as burning hot as most photographers, but I do enjoy going out and plan my shots. I am more interested in street photography, but I am trying to shoot a bit of everything, from sports, nature to cars. I guess the “commercial” side of my designer trait will always be a big influence on how I shoot. It will be nice to be good at one style of photography but it is just profitable.

I’m sussing out ways to integrate this website with my Flickr account because all of my photography work is on a Flickr account which I update more regularly. Stay tune!

Client: R&I ICT ConsultingBrief: Design four pull-up banners which will be used in expos as well as video recording.Look & feel: follow through with its branding look & feel, technology focus, and contemporaryDesigner & Art Director: Leanne Chow

Client: Lighting Council AustraliaBrief: Lighting Council Australia has asked to refresh the look and feel of their website to a more contemporary and attractive website.Look & feel: slick, contemporary, eye catchingDesigner & Art Director: Leanne Chow